♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on "the news hour" tonight -- president biden makes history by commuting over one thousand sentences and issuing dozens of pardons for non-violent drug offenders. amna: daily life returns to syria, where its new leaders must now figure out how to build a functioning government for the entire nation. geoff: and one colorado

community thrown into the political spotlight prepares for mass deportations under the incoming trump administration. gladis: if in case i am unable to be with my children, who will be in charge for them? deportations leave a lasting impact on our community. ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs news hour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects

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geoff: welcome to "the news hour." president biden announced today that he's commuting the prison sentences of some 1500 people and issuing pardons to 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. amna: that marks the largest number of commutations by a president in a single day. secretary jean-pierre: as the president has said before, america was founded on the premise of second chances. for far too long, our criminal justice system has closed doors of opportunity for too many people who should have the chance to once again participate in daily life and contribute to their communities. amna: lisa desjardins has more on the clemencies. lisa: amna and geoff, most of the people affected by this clemency grant have been serving sentences under home confinement, thanks to a provision put in place during the covid epidemic. now, their sentences have been commuted. in addition, 39 people have had their convictions fully pardoned, all for nonviolent

offenses, including drug offenses. the list includes americans who served time for crimes committed in their teens or early twenties, and several are military veterans. until now, biden has approved fewer clemencies than most recent presidents. mark osler is a professor at the university of st. thomas school of law in minneapolis, an expert on presidential clemency, and joins me now for a deeper dive. thank you so much. clemency is a unique power of presidents and i want to remind our audience what we are talking about. a pardon is something that forgives a crime and allows the person to regain some status, including the ability to vote. commutations reduce penalties including jail time and sometimes fines but don't change the status. you said this is a big day including for one of your clients, who was one of those

pardoned. can you talk about her and what this pardon means? prof. osler: out of that smaller group of people who were pardoned as opposed to a commutation, sarah carlson is someone who submitted her petition with the help of one of my students back in 2020. and has waited for years for this pardoned. she is someone who was involved in drugs, was addicted, had crimes associated with that, and then she cleaned up and changed her life and devoted herself to helping other people and certainly deserves this pardon. lisa: i want to talk about the nearly 1500 people with sentences that were commuted. these are folks who have been serving at home because of covid-era law. when you look at the group, what is your understanding about why they are receiving commutations of everyone in the federal system? prof. osler: i think it is because they have proven themselves. we are looking at people who have been out for at least a year who have clean records. it has been a remarkable experiment in what happens when

we release people early when they have been carefully vetted. with the trump administration in place at that time, that is who did the vetting. it was under bill barr. that group as a whole on home confinement has really done remarkable things in reentering society, becoming citizens and neighbors. because they were seen as safe, they were given broad categorical grants. lisa: the white house release mentioned these are folks who either continued education or already found employment in some way. so there is additional vetting for this group. but there are some republicans who are critical about this and have been. senator marsha blackburn of tennessee put out a tweet year at goats thing -- a year ago saying covid is over and she thought this policy of home confinement should have ended. how do you respond to that criticism that this is a

haphazard circumstance related to something outside the justice system but instead to a pandemic and this is not a group that should be considered in this way? prof. osler: it is the nature of clemency that we are supposed to seek out to people who have rehabilitated themselves, who can live safely amongst us and contribute something. the fact that covid accelerated that process is ultimately good. there is no reason to have these people locked up. and frankly they are a fraction of the group who should be locked up. lisa: you and i have talked before about this. president biden has had up until now fewer grants of clemency than most recent presidents. he did grant a pardon to his son last week. we talked about that. after today where do you think biden's legacy and record stands in this area? what are your expectations? prof. osler: his legacy right now is that he has approached clemency in a way that has resulted in grants that are wide but shallow. by that i mean, there are a lot of people that did not get a huge amount of benefit. these are people who are already out. if you contrast that with what

president obama did, his was deep. he was granting commutations of sentences to people doing life in prison without parole. so right now his legacy is someone who is skimming the easy cases off the surface. but that can change. there are still weeks left and there is a whole bunch of people who are deserving. one thing we have seen is he has granted clemency to a lot of people who did not petition for clemency while largely ignoring the people who did. sarah was someone who did in the handful of pardons today. but there are hundreds and hundreds of other people and there is reason to think they have positive recommendations from the pardon attorney who he could grant as well, and he should. lisa: mark osler with the university of st. thomas, thank you for joining us. prof. osler: you're welcome. ♪ vanessa: -- stephanie: i'm

stephanie sy with news hour west. here are the latest headlines. white house officials tried to reassure the public today that mysterious drones reported over new jersey and other states are neither a security issue nor a safety threat. but state and local officials are pressing for more transparency, and senator richard blumenthal of connecticut went so far as to suggest shooting some down, if necessary. geoff bennett has our report. >> that is a drone, that is not an airplane. geoff: all over social media. >> there are literally dozens of drones flying around. geoff: video after video showing mysterious drones flashing in the night sky. new jersey has been the epicenter of the drone sightings , with others reportedly spotted in new york, pennsylvania and maryland. >> they are just pacing back and forth. geoff: sometimes hovering in clusters. they were first seen in november near a military facility in morris county, new jersey. and flying over president-elect donald trump's golf course, in bedminster.

those sidings prompted the fbi to mount an investigation, and the faa temporarily issued flight restrictions over those areas. >> it is concerning, it is frustrating. geoff: on capitol hill this week, outrage. >> you're telling me we don't know what the hell these drones are in new jersey are? is that correct? >> that's right. th's crazy. >> i mean, that's crazy. geoff: republican lawmakers from the jersey shore area shared their own theories to fox news. >> not just suspicious, but provocative, and this could be a foreign power. >> iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones. there is not any truth to that. >> geoff: the pentagon quickly refuted those claims. >> there's no so-called mothership launching drones towards the united states. geoff: in a statement, the u.s. northern command, which oversees the defense department's homeland security efforts, said it had conducted a deliberate analysis of the events but it had not been asked to assist with these events. today, some democrats voiced

frustration. >> a lot of potentially misinformation to spread, or at least fear, we should know what's going on over our skies. geoff: white house national security spokesman, john kirby. >> we have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security, or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus. geoff: echoed by new jersey that assurance echoed by new jersey governor phil murphy . >> there is no public safety risk that we're aware of. on the other hand, is it frustrating to not have more answers? is it frustrating to not have a source for these things? yes. geoff: kirby added that the reported sightings appear to be overstated, with drones often mistaken for lawfully operated aircraft. stephanie: also today, a report from the justice department inspector general's office found that there were no undercover fbi employees on the scene during the january sixth attack on the u.s. capital.

the findings knock down a conspiracy theory advanced by some republicans in congress that the fbi played a role in the events of that day. the review also found that the fbi should have done more to gather intelligence before the riot unfolded. the justice department, meantime, has reached a deal with the city of louisville on a federal oversight plan to reform its police force following the fatal shooting of breonna taylor. the consent decree, as it is known, follows a doj report from last year that found the police department violated the constitutional rights of louisville's black community. mayor craig greenberg said the agreement will build upon and accelerate the transformational police reform we have already begun here in louisville. the deal comes more than four years after a louisville police officer fatally shot the 26-year-old taylor in her own home. president-elect trump has invited chinese president xi jinping to his inauguration in january. during a visit to the new york stock exchange today, trump

announced that he is considering inviting other world leaders to the transfer-of-power ceremonies. if xi or any of the other leaders accepts the invitation, it would be the first time on record that a foreign head of state has ever attended an inauguration. the head of the federal aviation administration, mike whitaker, says he'll resign on january 20th, the day donald trump is inaugurated. whitaker took over the five-year role in late 2023, and has seen the agency through a difficult period, including a number of near-miss incidents, and the fallout from boeing's door panel blowout last january. that's on top of staffing shortages, and problems with delays and congestion across the nation's airports. his departure clears the way for president-elect trump to name his own pick to lead the agency. in southern california, cooler tempratures and calmer winds are helping efforts to reign in the franklin fire, which has been ravaging parts of malibu this week.

meteorologists have already dropped all red flag warnings related to dangerous fire and wind conditions. nearly 20,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders as of this morning. thousands had already fled their homes. at last check, the franklin fi has burned some 4000 acres and was about 20% contained. u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan expressed optimism that a deal may be close on a ceasefire in gaza. he said he hopes the parties can reach an agreement as early as this month. sullivan's comments followed a meeting today with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in jerusalem. sullivan said he saw signs of a willingness to reach a deal from both the israeli leader and hamas, due in part to israel's recent ceasefire agreement with hezbollah. >> the surround sound of these negotiations is different today than it has been in the past. we can't rest until it actually happens.

it might not happen, but i believe it can happen with political will on both sides. the israeli government has indicated, including the prime minister, they would like to see this done. we see movement from hamas. stephanie: just hours after sullivan's optimistic comments, an israeli aistrike hit the nuseirat refugee camp in central gaza, killing at least 25 palestinians and wounding dozens more according to palestinian medics. in ukraine, officials say russian forces are moving closer to the eastern city of pokrovsk. ukraine's top military commander says fighting there is extremely intense, and that the russians are just a few miles from the key rail and road hub for ukraine's army. in brussels, nato chief mark rutte said european nations need to shift to a wartime mindset and boost defense spending to address the threat from russia. >> the security tuation does not look good. it's undoubtedly the worst in my

lifetime, and i suspect in yours too. what is happening in ukraine could happen here, too. and regardless of the outcome of this war, we will not be safe in the future unless we are prepared to deal with danger. stephanie: later in the day, the biden administration announced a 500 million dollar weapons package for ukraine that includes high mobility artillery rocket systems. in south korea, president yoon suk yeol is doubling down on his martial law degree that prompted hundreds of protesters to clash with police outside yoon's residence. they're calling for him to step down a sentiment echoed by , members of his own party. >> the president should be immediately excluded from state administration, including the military leadership. as long as it has been confirmed that the president has no intention of stepping down early, an immediate suspension of his duties is required. stephanie: south korea's

opposition parties have submitted a second impeachment motion against yoon, after he survived a similar measure last saturday. this latest effort is set to go to a floor vote this weekend. still to come on the news hour -- freed prisoners in syria recount the horrors they faced under the assad regime. the secretary of defense nominees controversial religious views and how that could affect the u.s. military. and experts work to understand a major decrease in drug overdose deaths throughout the nation. >> this is the pbs news hour from the david in rubenstein studio at weta studios in washington and in the west from , the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: now to syria. secretary of state antony blinken was in jordan today, and turkey tonight, meeting with leaders of two crucial syrian neighbors. and within syria, an american was found as the prisons are

emptied. many people initially thought he was journalist austin tice, believed held in syria the last 12 years. geoff: instead, we now know it is travis timmerman, from missouri, detained earlier this year by the former regime on what he called a religious pilgrimage for which he would later write a book. tice's whereabouts remain unknown. apart from the joy and relief, the mundane but vital work of making a country function is job number one for many. simona foltyn reports on that huge task, and the mess the assad family left behind. simona: outside syria's central bank, a new police unit is in charge. almost overnight, syria's security institutions have melted away, from the feared intelligence agencies down to the traffic police. abbas sheikh is from idlib, the northern province from where the rebels launched their lightning offensive. >> the liberation happened sunday morning.

we arrived from idlib in the afternoon and immediately took over to protect the public and private facilities, to protect the people, to facilitate things and to receive the people's complaints. simona: days after bashar al assad's overthrow, the capital appears to be functioning. streets are getting busier by the day, shops and government institutions are slowly returning to work. the opposition has taken over government institutions in damascus and has begun the task of governing the country, using its experience in idlib as a blueprint. but administrating a whole country as opposed to a province is quite a different matter, and it remains to be seen how easily it can be scaled. in front of the municipality, assad's picture lies on the floor for passersby to step on. fighters from the leading rebel faction, heyat tahrir al sham, or hts, guard the building. inside, we meet syria's newly minted deputy minister of local

administrations, in charge of providing services across the country. mohammed yasser ghazal is also the acting governor of damascus province. >> i'm syrian from aleppo. i'm a civil engineer. then i worked in saudi arabia for two years, then god bless me, i joined the revolution in 2014, i traveled to syria in 2014. simona: what is this government called now? >> the government of the syrian arab republic. simona: so no more hts? >> hts was one of the factions that was part of the liberation and after liberation, no factions remain. these were a tool for a certain period and they won't remain. we have transitioned from the revolutionary phase to the phase of statehood. simona: do you that think you have the experience and capabilities to run a country? >> yes. during the previous period, from 2018 from the formation of the salvation government until 2024,

the date of the liberation, we've gained a lot of experience. before the revolution, idlib was called the forgotten idlib. it was very poor. we provided electricity. idlib, which has four million inhabitants, we are providing 24 hours of electricity, without any cuts. entire networks were built, thousands of kilometers of asphalt, infrastructure, sewage. simona: what are the challenges you face in scaling your work? >> the challenges are immense. unfortunately we only received the remnants of a state. there was a ruling league or gang and people of all sects and religions remained crushed. simona: ghazal is holding daily meetings with the staff to get services up and running. at first glance, it appears to be an inclusive approach, a drastic change compared to assad's draconian rule. hala halla has worked here for decades and is stunned by the transformation.

>> i've been working here for 28 years, and i never entered the office of the governor. yesterday was the first time i entered. i was amazed at the office, at the hall. simona: under assad's rule, the sole purpose of the state was to protect those in power. bureaucrats like hala weren't given the authority or resources to serve the syrian people. >> we were receiving requests from the citizens, but we couldn't record them unless we got the approval from inside that office. we would raise a problem and nobody would answer. simona: now that he's gone, the full extent of assad's corruption is coming to light. state resources were stolen, siphoned off into the pockets of the ruling family and their loyalists. civil servants only earned around $20 per day and even had to purchase their own supplies, creating fertile ground for corruption. >> we didn't have papers, we would have to even purchase our own pens.

the couriers delivering the post had to pay for their own transport. this is what caused corruption because the employees couldn't afford to pay rent or feed their children. simona: hala has been told that salaries will be raised. but it's too soon to tell if the new government will deliver on its many promises for this new syria. for the pbs news hour, i'm simona foltyn in damascus, syria. ♪ geoff: the assad legacy is one of horror. hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced or in exile. but perhaps nothing illustrates the deep depravity more than the atrocious archipelago of prisons and torture centers where tens of thousands were killed by the regime. amna: special correspondent leila molana-allen takes us inside some of these

now-liberated hells on earth, as syrians search for answers, and for their loved ones. and a warning, this story contains many images and accounts of violence. leila: the word that has struck terror into the hearts of every syrian for decades -- sednaya. a black hole of pain and abuse where tens of thousands disappeared and few ever emerged again. but now those who feared these walls have breached them, desperately searching for survivors of the deposed presidents nightmarish prison. a sudden swarm. they have heard a sound. this group of family members and fighters have found a steel wall and think they can hear voices behind it. they are searching now and to break through to see if there may be any prisoners behind it still alive. rescue crews have been searching the vast mountain compound for days following rumors of a network of hidden cells underground.

pounding through layers of concrete they found nothing. but with tens of thousands more detainees still missing, these families are holding on to that fading hope, and everyone here is determined to leave no stone unturned. outside, more crowds and pleading faces. their 16-year-old son was taken seven years ago. she never heard from him again but the government said he was still alive in jail. >> what was his crime? he was 17. he missed out on his childhood and i didn't get to see him grow up. he is the sweetest young man. leila: like so many here she says her son did nothing to deserve this. she was never told why he was imprisoned. when the prison was broken open last weekend, she jumped on a bus from her home far in the north. for three days she has sat here in the freezing cold with other mothers, waiting. >> i don't want anything except my son. my heart is telling me that my

son is here. like he is calling for me. mama. leila: inside the prison, a trove of documents scattered across every floor. each contains precious details which could reveal news of your loved ones. syrians scour through the crumpled pages by the light of their cell phones, looking desperately for a lead on a loved one. hurriedly abandoned documents list the names of women held underground. fingerprints of inmates. and every now and then, signs of the children we now know where held here. a coloring book. kids as young as 13 were imprisoned here and some were born here. the horrifying legacy of the systematic rape of female inmates.

this 14-year-old is helping his family search for his cousin. he hopes he will never have to face what other boys his age have. >> i hope now the oppression in this country will end and children will be free to go to school and not fear being arrested. leila: but hope for everyone here is turning to despair as the evidence of assad's torture chambers inside the walls of the prison becomes clear. a wall of death. nooses laid out for public hangings. and then the crusher. >> they bring a prisoner and put him between these metal plates and crush him between them and then they scrape out the flesh and bones and throw it in a bag. leila: human beings treated like waste. with thousands of inmates cramped in these walls, prisoners say there were daily executions, sometimes just to make space. in the bowels of the complex, more horrors await. many who were kept down here did not see daylight for years.

prisoners say this hole was the daily humiliation. guards filled it with urine and and feces and would force them into it. on the walls the fevered scratchings of those who tried to keep a sense of time and life outside. for years we have searched for evidence of what exactly was happening in this place they call the human slaughterhouse based on snippets of information that came from the few people who managed to make it out alive. it is utterly haunting now to walk these halls and know that these tiny cells are where so many thousands of human beings endured unimaginable suffering. the minds of the thousands who survived these torture chambers remain haunted. >> the assad regime considered us terrorists. if you were married they would bring your wife and beat her and her friends. they would torture, rape, and humiliate them. some would die from the torture. we were constantly beaten. i saw the cruelty for myself and so many died around me.

leila: mohammed was arrested at 17 and spent three years at another prison finally released , only to be immediately conscripted into the army by force. he defected as soon as he could but authorities tracked him down and threw him in the prison. >> i was so terrified. if we had not been saved by our brothers i would have gone insane. those who were with me had already gone insane. leila: daily physical and psychological torture have taken their toll. unimaginable just a few days ago, mohammed is home. some of the thousands still searching are now forced to accept the horrifying truth, that a funeral shroud may be better than no news at all. dozens of bodies were discovered at a military hospital yesterday and were brought here to the public hospital. in various states of decay, many

with limbs missing. some seem only to have been killed in the last few weeks. their emaciated bodies covered with the scars of torture and starvation. faces stretched in a rictus of pain. >> they have been crushed, burnt with acid. they have been treated like, sorry to say, but animals. animals were better than them. leila: all day families have come to collect the bodies of loved ones they have identified. >> if you see there, there is a box that is filled with bones. there scans and meat were burned in acid. leila: room after room is laden with corpses. this man is searching for his son. the doctor tries to help them find identifying features like teeth and eyebrows. sobbing mothers and shellshocked

fathers file through in english barely able to bring themselves , to look at the rows of young men, desperate not to see their children among them but driven by desperation to discover their fates. a young man rocks in the corner of the morgue, inconsolable. for those too destroyed to be identified, dna tests. they died alone in an unimaginable hell. these heartbroken families, hope is now gone. pray they can show them the respect they deserve in death. across syria thousands of grieving families may soon no longer be looking for mass prisons but mass graves. for the pbs news hour, i am leila molana-allen in damascus. ♪

amna: president-elect donald trump's nominee for secretary of defense, pete hegseth, continued to press his case on capitol hill today, meeting with his first democratic senator, pennsylvania's john fetterman. geoff: hegseth has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, and financial mismanagement, which he denies. laura barron-lopez is here now to discuss something else that's drawn scrutiny, the influence of hegseth's religious beliefs. laura: pete hegseth has said faith became real for him around 2018, years after his service in iraq and afghanistan. he went on to write a number of books and has made frequent appearances on conservative podcasts and shows, in which he discusses his christian ideology. those writings, comments, and even hegseth's tattoos, have gotten increased attention in the weeks since trump's announcement. for more on what's known about hegseth's beliefs and how they may influence his leadership at the pentagon, we're joined by brad onishi, who studies religious extremism, and co-hosts the podcast, straight white american jesus.

brad, thank you so much for joining the news hour. let's start with what hegseth has said explicitly. in his 2020 book he wrote, we don't want to fight, but like our fellow christians 1000 years ago, we must. our american crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. yet. what does this kind of language, along with hegseth writings and other comments, tell you about his beliefs? brad: well, hegseth puts himself in the category of an american crusader, drawing inspiration from the crusades in the medieval period. but many christians don't see the crusades as a high point in the christian tradition. what we do know is that those who don the crusader identity, those who use its symbology and its stories as inspiration, are often part of white nationalist and christian nationalist movements, and in tragic cases, have waged holy war themselves. anders breivik referenced the knights templar in his act of terrorism. the christchurch shooter emblazoned crusader symbology on his weapons.

so the use of these symbols, for many christians, is alarming. and yet these are the ones that hegseth has chosen as his understanding of where christians stand today. laura: let's talk about some of those symbols. a lot of attention has been paid to his tattoos. a dais volt one that has been adopted by white supremacists, a jerusalem cross tattoo. and those were flagged by a fellow national guardsman, which then led to hegseth being pulled from protecting president biden's inauguration in 2021. tell us about those tattoos and what they symbolize. brad: well, those tattoos are, again, symbols that are used by white christian nationalists, those who have adopted the crusader images really see themselves as at war with those trying to take down american christianity and western civilization at large. that means members of the lgbtq community, that means transpeople. that means those who don't see themselves as part of a christian society. there's a temptation, i think,

to write off those tattoos as just an expression of this faith or to say they're no big deal. but we just talked about him as donning a crusader identity. and as somebody who's a former minister, somebody who has been studying christianity for two decades now as a scholar, i can tell you there are thousands of symbols and sayings and icons that christian people use to express their spirituality on their bodies, in their homes, and in public. there are expressions of faith and peace, of love and forgiveness, but those are clearly not the ones hegseth has chosen. laura: president elect trump's transition team did not respond to requests for comment about hegseth and his beliefs, but hegseth and others have said that those tattoos are ones that a number of veterans have. they've also argued that his christian beliefs are not extremist. how do you respond to that? brad: well, what i would say is that the evidence shows us that those who donned those tattoos

are prone to take part in extremist communities. it can be hard to pin intentionality on people. but when somebody says that they think we should fight like a modern day crusade and then they don the symbols of that crusade, i think we should take them seriously. laura: i also want to ask you about the specific church that hegseth has attended in tennessee. it's part of a denomination founded by doug wilson, a pastor in moscow, idaho. what beliefs does that denomination promote, and why are they significant? brad: doug wilson is a firebrand pastor and theologian. he is somebody who reaches millions of people through his podcast, through his writings, through the schools that he's founded, and the denomination of which pete hegseth's church is a part. wilson is known for radical beliefs about gender. he doesn't believe that women should have any authority in the home or in society, much less the church. he has said that the time of enslavement in this country was a time of harmony between the races.

if you don't share the same hymn book as wilson, then you can't be mayor. if you're a hindu or muslim, you simply can't hold any kind of authority in our public square. hegseth not only attends a church that is part of wilson's denomination, but he's claimed wilson as a kind of spiritual mentor. so if we have wilson saying that non-christians shouldn't hold positions of leadership and claiming him as a spiritual mentor, it makes me wonder that if hegseth is secretary of defense, can the non-christian, the muslim, the hindu, the agnostic, or the atheist in our armed services rise the ranks to positions of authority? can they be captain? can they be sergeant? how will they be understood in the context of service under hegseth's leadership? laura: on that big picture, if hegseth is ultimately confirmed to lead the pentagon, he's railed against diversity in the military. but taken altogether, what do you think it means if he ultimately is atop the department of defense? brad: i think it means a lot.

i think that one thing we need to get straight is our armed services are one of the most diverse institutions we have in the country. and so, to rail against diversity is to enter a context in which we have one of the most diverse services our nation has to offer. but i think, additionally, hegseth is symbolic. hegseth represents a u.s. military envisioned as a vehicle for holy war. he's claimed to be a christian crusader. and that seems to be the kind of mentality he wants to implement as a leader. i think additionally, hegseth is your pick if you want to radicalize our military. hegseth has said in his writings that he believes there are enemies within our own country. those who are trying to destroy the country from within our borders. if you want to be the kind of president who uses the insurrection act to call the military against uprisings in american cities, to use military force against protesters, hegseth is the man for the job, and he will do so believing that he's not waging some kind of brutal criminal act, but instead

a holy war against the infidels within america's city gates. laura: brad onishi, thank you for your time. brad: thank you. ♪ geoff: today, president-elect trump said he is willing to enlist the u.s. military to deport migrants and is also open to creating new detention camps to facilitate those deportations. the comments from an interview with time magazine are the latest from mr. trump on his key campaign pledge, mounting the largest deportation operation in american history. stephanie sy reports from colorado, a state with significant protections for undocumented immigrants, that also found itself at the center of the immigration debate during the campaign. stephanie: in northwest aurora, groups of immigrant day laborers wait for work. the re-election of a president promising mass deportations has

not fazed some. this young man immigrated from guatemala nine years ago. >> i don't think it's going to be anything. he says he's only going to deport those who are carrying out crimes. stephanie: others, like this man from mauritania, say trump's election has sparked his fears of deportation. the recently-arrived asylum-seeker asked to remain anonymous. >> if we go back there, it's prison or death. i am really scared. it keeps me up at night. if i'm returned, i don't know where i'll go, i know that i will be in trouble. stephanie: that's a sentiment mateos alvarez has heard a lot over the last month. >> there is concern around mass deportation naturally, and especially for those in this community across the board. because it's very diverse here, lower income, lots of folks coming and living here now, this is their second home from all over the world. stephanie: alvarez runs the aurora economic opportunity coalition, one of several

nonprofits that sprung into action in 2022 when tens of thousands of migrants began to arrive in colorado. >> we are in a community that doesn't have a lot of resources and it was very overwhelming for us in aurora. but we've done a great job to get folks moving into the different pathways. work authorization when it comes to asylee applications and on and on and on. stephanie: but in august, a video of armed men in an apartment complex in aurora went viral. >> now there have been allegations that gangs have now completely taken this building over. >> everybody has seen the viral video footage. they have guns. they have a lot of guns. they are violent. stephanie: aurora city councilwoman danielle jurinsky helped make this video national news. she says that the violent venezuelan gang tren de aragua came with the recent wave of migrants to aurora. >> it is so unfortunate that our immigration system became so broken.

stephanie: the city of 400,000 residents became part of a frequent trump attack line against vice president kamala harris during the campaign. >> you look at aurora in colorado. they are taking over the towns. they're taking over buildings. they're going in violently. these are the people that she and biden let into our country. stephanie: aurora's republican mayor and jurinsky issued a statement saying tren de aragua has not taken over the city and the problem is limited to specific properties. in recent months, aurora police have arrested at least nine alleged members of the gang. >> it turned out to be 10 gang members. people were scared, yes. but what was stated and what was fact, it's somewhere in the middle, to be honest. but nationally, when all that was going on, it made things more stressful. stephanie: the apartment complex that made national news in aurora is set to close. but accounts of it being overrun by a violent venezuelan gang

continue to reverberate. making this diverse city a focus of national immigration policy, including president trump's pledge to conduct mass deportations. >> these towns have been conquered. stephanie: at a rally here in october, trump announced operation aurora, a plan to use an obscure 18th century law to deport undocumented gang members. but that some critics argue could lead to detentions and deportations without judicial review. >> and let me tell you something else. aurora, colorado is not a sanctuary city. stephanie: jurinsky, who spoke at the trump rally, says her concern has always been on those breaking the law, not all immigrants. >> they have made very clear, that they are coming for the criminals first. in my opinion, that's a lot. i know it's been put out there that, you know, folks that have been here for 20, 30 years are going to be taken and families are going to be torn apart. i just don't believe that.

i just don't. i hope that i'm not proven to be wrong. if i see some things like that, you know, i potentially could be a speedbump. stephanie: how would you be a speedbump? >> i would certainly speak up and do anything that i could. i certainly would not be ok with with families being separated, folks being taken from our community that have grown roots here. stephanie: aurora's immigrant population is not united on their feelings about deportations. one long-time resident from mexico told us anonymously that fellow latin american immigrants that commit crimes deserve to be deported. and sandra pitol, an undocumented migrant who came from mexico more than 23 years ago, had this view. >> if i have to leave this country, i'll leave, because it's not my country, and i've always been aware that it's not my country. eight years ago donald trump was

also president and he was also saying that he was going to deport people, immigrants, and really, well, nothing happened. stephanie: but gladis ibarra takes trump at his word. >> we hear these threats and these promises. and i don't think we should take them lightly. stephanie: ibarra is the co-executive director of the colorado immigrant rights coalition and is herself a recipient of daca, the obama-era program for those who were brought to the u.s. as children without documentation. while trump has recently said he would protect daca recipients, he tried to shut it down in his first term. >> a lot of us, myself, i have children. if something were to happen to me, what is the plan that i'm leaving behind? and if in case i am unable to be with my children, who will be in charge for them? deportations leave a lasting impact on our community, and i'm thinking of the most common scenario where we see a parent be separated.

the trauma that that leaves for the child, and how that impacts their upbringing, but also the people around them. stephanie: the organization is holding know-your-rights trainings for immigrants. it is also bracing for pushback to laws that protect immigrants in colorado, like a 2019 measure that prohibits local and state police from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement. >> we have worked tirelessly with our partners both on the ground and in the capital to ensure that everyone in colorado feels safe from federal government overreach. but every year we have seen people that want to challenge our laws locally. we see those efforts, and we have held the line thus far. i think we have a fight ahead of us. stephanie: back in aurora, mateos alvarez says he's remained focused on getting migrants on the right track, while the uncertainty of president-elect trump's mass deportation promise looms. >> right now, we don't have much

to go on other than that kind of slogan. but for us, we are trying to be proactive and put people to work, become independent, follow the rules. doing that allows us to bring hope to the many who came here for whatever reason that they came here. stephanie: hope that some fear will soon be out of reach. for the pbs news hour, i'm stephanie sy in aurora, colorado. ♪ amna: new data from the cdc this week shows a significant drop in drug overdose deaths, down nearly 17% year-over-year from approximately 113,000 to just over 94,000. it's a rare bit of good news after decades of rising fatalities. nationwide, overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled since 2002,

and spiked to record highs during the pandemic. but the root causes of this decline are still unclear. to unpack it all we're joined now by brian mann, npr's national addiction correspondent. welcome back and thank you for joining us. these are encouraging numbers for sure, but for perspective, even with that drop, annual overdose deaths are still above 90,000. that would be a record high in year before 2020. remind us how those numbers got so high in the first place. brian: you know, so we had this terrible double hit. the covid pandemic came and it disrupted addiction treatment and public health programs nationwide. and at the same time, fentanyl landed, this very toxic, very powerful street opioid that comes from mexico and china. and those together, we saw in some years a 30% increase in deaths. and so to see now this big shift to a 17% decline year over year, that's a big downward trend. amna: so we know the biden

administration is taking partial credit for it. and they point to their efforts to distribute naloxone, the medicine that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. they also point to their success disrupting global drug trafficking networks. did that play a role in this decline? do we know what's behind it? brian: so there is a mystery here. i mean, this is such a huge decline. it's unprecedented in the history of drug addiction in america to see a drop this fast. but most of the researchers and frontline public health workers i talked to do think naloxone is reversing a lot of overdoses that would otherwise be fatal. that's playing a role. there has been an immense effort to target the cartels, and there's some sign that the fentanyl reaching american streets may be weaker and maybe a little bit less available. so these are just some of the responses that the people i'm talking to say are really working, saving, at this point, tens of thousands of lives. amna: there are some pockets of data that seem to be bucking the trend, though, right? where are we not seeing progress

and why not? brian: i talked about this mystery, and one of the things that we don't understand yet is why six states, mostly in the west, are still seeing dramatic increases. nevada and alaska are particularly problematic. they're up 25% to 40%. also, researchers are telling me that in black communities and native american communities, still a lot of vulnerability, a lot of people still dying. so, this recovery really does appear to be happening. amna: so you mentioned this is a significant decline, unprecedented for what we've seen here in america. but is it the beginning of a bigger downward trend? i mean, where do we think the numbers will go from here? brian: so what we've seen now is an eight month long sustained recovery. that is a good sign. this does not appear to just be a one month statistical blip. and another thing that really looks good here is that the rate of decline of drug deaths, that's growing month to month, it seems to be accelerating.

one of the reasons that researchers are trying to understand the mystery of why this is happening is so they can sustain it and maybe build on it. as you say, 94,000 deaths is still catastrophically high, right? this is not good enough. and if we begin to plateau here, everyone agrees that this is not going to be the place we want to stay. so that is going to be the big question. as we transition to the trump administration, can they find ways to not only keep this going, but to build on it and to and to keep those deaths dropping month over month going on into the future? amna: while i've got you i want to ask about some other headlines that have gotten some attention. there's been some controversy around the kind of harm reduction approach we've seen in some communities. oregon, for example, decriminalizing personal drug possession in 2020, then recriminalizing it this year. rhode island now, one of the only places to open a safe injection site in the country soon. what do we know in terms of data and your reporting about how effective those kinds of efforts are? brian: this is a really

interesting thing about drug addiction is that sometimes harm reduction responses that do things like providing clean needles to people, in some cases even giving people safe places to use drugs where they're monitored by medical personnel. these are controversial, but there is a lot of data showing that they work. they do save lives. here's the problem. they also can lead to community problems. there are places where people worry about crime. they worry about people doing drugs in their neighborhoods. and so one of the tensions that a lot of communities, from portland, oregon to seattle, washington, right across the country, what they're wrestling with is trying to find ways to provide those harm reduction services, which have a pretty good track record saving lives, but doing it in a way that also deals with that crime issue and with that public safety issue. amna: that's brian mann, npr's national addiction correspondent, joining us tonight. brian, thank you. brian: thanks. ♪

geoff: here's a little something for news hour fans and their children. the animated pbs kids series "xavier riddle and the secret museum" follows xavier as he, his sister, and friend meet historical figures portrayed as children. amna: and in a recent episode, they meet one person very dear to us. >> so this is new york state in 1964. whoa. tall buildings. >> good afternoon. hi. i'm gwen eifel. good afternoon. >> hi, i'm xavier. >> i'm brad. >> nice to meet you. are you visiting? >> how did you know? >> i heard you say so this is

new york state in 1964. which doesn't sound like someone -- something a person who is from new york or 1964 would say. but i didn't know for sure, so i asked. asking questions is a great way to get information. >> excellent point. are you visiting too? >> no, my family moved here a while ago. we move around a lot. so, i like asking questions to learn more about each new place and about the new people i meet. when i have a lot of questions, i write them down to remember later. >> the art, from the sacred museum? >> why does it say peas and gravy? >> i guess he was thinking about food. >> new on the menu, rice pudding. free samples, come and try some. >> anyone else hungry? >> rice pudding? what is that?

>> it sounds weird. it looks weird. it's no tease and grape jelly sandwich, that's for sure. it's no peas and gravy either. but i am curious to learn more, and asking questions is a great way to get information. amna: always asking questions. gwen, we miss you so. you can watch that full episode of "xavier riddle and the secret museum" right now. that's on the pbs kids video app or on your local pbs station. check your local listings. and that is the news hour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here at the pbs "news hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the news hour, including leonard and norma

klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ and friends of the news hour. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is pbs news hour west from the david rubins tied -- rubenstein studio in washington

and arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning inst

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "cook's country," ashley makes bridget